


He Blinded Me With...Second Place

by IrishCoffee



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: M/M, domestic grim, very established relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-16
Updated: 2014-07-16
Packaged: 2018-02-09 03:37:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1967508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IrishCoffee/pseuds/IrishCoffee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taken from a prompt word on the Sherlock Rare Pair Bingo word list for round two. None of the words are on my card but I'm still using them for inspiration and motivation to write more. </p><p>The word was "silver"</p><p>Archie did a project for the school's science fair with the help of Greg and Jim and manages to walk away with a silver medal. He deserved first, of course, but everyone acts like he took gold anyways. </p><p>It's just a small drabble, second parts may come depending on words given and motivation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	He Blinded Me With...Second Place

The Stratford Centre Shopping Mall had become a location Greg found himself visiting every two weeks. He wasn’t one for malls and certainly not in a neighbourhood like Stratford but it was a nice halfway point, public too, so it fed everyone’s needs well. The new custody agreement allowed Greg to take his son Archie every other weekend without supervision, his ex-wife wasn’t happy with it but there was little she could do to stop it.

She always thought he picked this shopping centre in order to appear like things were more together than they were, her marriage to the man, for sixteen years, meant she knew better than to think this was the sort of place he would come because he wanted to. It was a show, it was another way he was electing to rub her face in his perfect life he had their son lying about all the time.

None of which was actually true. Greg opted for this location because their were people around. It had other benefits, sure, but stopping her from making a scene really was at the top of his list, points one through five even. It had one bonus though, he could always bring Jim along and not feel guilty about having to leave him for twenty minutes or so as he picked up Archie. It wasn’t like leaving him to sit in a coffee shop or restaurant, this way Jim would have something to do.

Arriving out in front of the building, met by his eight year old running across the car park, Greg went to get his weekend started. There wasn’t a dictionary or thesaurus in their house that gave Greg the words to describe this moment as he squat down to the correct size for the impending attack. As always the younger Lestrade nearly knocked his father over in greeting. Arms wrapped around his son, Greg gave a nod to his ex-wife. Then an annoyed shake of his head when reminded when the return time was but that was all the attention she was given as Archie pulled back from the hug.

"LOOK!" He squealed, holding up a medal he’d been wearing around his neck.

It was clunky and the ribbon that it was dangling from frayed in the middle, clearly this had been more a necklace than a prize lately. Greg beamed, he didn’t have to ask what it was for but did anyways. “How’d you get that?”

"The science fair!" the words fell from Archie’s mouth in an excited jumble. "The project we worked on got me silver place!"

"Second."

"Second place!"

"Congratulations!" Greg bent down, his knee nearly touching the ground to make himself the same height as his son, to get a better look. Picking up the medal between his fingers, which made it look much smaller, he turned it over to reveal an atom design, the front had the school’s name. It was hard not to smile, impossible not to play the proud father, if Greg had been there standing with a silver medal he’d be disappointed with himself but seeing that his son had earned one he couldn’t have been happier, it was true pride. "I’m really proud of you. Did you remember all the information?"

"I did. The teacher helped us make cards so we could remember everything. He didn’t like my stories but I told one anyways."

The pride grew in Greg. He knew the story telling wasn’t defiant but was because this was something that interested Archie but the fact that he’d stuck to it and told it anyways was more than enough. He’d do everything in his power to make sure that was never taken from him, the comfort to do what he wanted. “Did they like it?”

"Mmhmm, they wanted to see pictures but I told them you said I couldn’t show ‘em."

"You can’t show them. They aren’t for school kids and they’re all locked up in files I can’t bring home."

"I coulda taken new ones."

"That’s worse and you know it!"

"But it would have been so cool!"

"Why don’t we go find Jim? Show off what you got?" Greg hoped a subject change would help them out of this rut.

"Jim!" the boy cried out, having forgotten all about the other half of his prep team who needed to see the spoils.

The unruly hair on Archie’s head bounced as he jittered his way along side his father. He had a small black messenger bag that he was carrying rather than wearing (it would have been in the way of the medal) full of clothes and films and things he didn’t need to bring but he liked packing luggage. Greg took the bag and threw it on his shoulder chuckling over the obvious sound of toys clattering against each other and took his son’s hand. Together they made way through the stores and crowd to find Jim.

Jim hated the stores in this shopping centre, nothing was to his taste but there was just enough to fool him into looking every time he was left in this position. The book store was weak, catered to the romance novel-reading, trend obsessed sort, classics were near impossible to find. Any clothing store seemed geared towards women or those men trying desperately to cling to youth but Baron Jon always seemed to lure the man in. Nothing in there was, it seemed like the sort of place that was one step above where Greg use to shop and only because they paid more attention to trends. Still, he had to be left somewhere and one day there was going to be something worthwhile in this shop.

Not today though, In the short time since Greg had left him, Jim had grown bored with the store and was now on a bench just outside the shop’s doors people watching. It was far more entertaining. He’d heard the Lestrades coming, stealth wasn't a family trait apparently, nor did it skip a generation. What Jim didn’t know about was the excitement the young boy held which was preventing him from any sort of silence. As soon as he spotted Jim on the bench Archie broke from his dad’s hold a took off running, darting through the thin crowd with the sort of ease that made Greg stand back and admire what a great athlete the boy was going to become.

"I got silver place!! I mean, second place…" Archie looked back to his dad who wasn’t even close enough to hear him yet as he corrected himself with the correct words he’d learned earlier. "…in the science fair. Look they gave me a medal! I didn’t get a prize because I wasn’t gold,"

It was obvious Archie didn’t care about his lack of prize, between the excitement he was showing almost four days after the event had happened and the frayed ribbon that told of something he’d not taken off since earning, it was apparent that runner-up was just as amazing as winning. That wasn’t how Jim felt about it but he’d learned how to better navigate these situations in past few months. Rather than voicing disappointment over being the first loser, he opted for something a little different.

"Just gives us something to shoot for next time." he spoke with excitement, not because he was pretending for the child’s feelings but because he was actually excited for the little guy. "Still, we cannot complain about a silver medal scientist staying with us."

Archie puffed up with pride in a way not unlike his dad, the praise did it to them every time, still there was more innocence in the younger Lestrade’s ego. It was actually building him up rather than mending old wounds, old wounds that required a lot of praise to repair.

Greg finally wandered over to the bench and joined his family, tossing Archie’s bag to the bench beside his partner. “Got bored with the shop already?” he teased in a low voice, not wanting to interrupt whatever was going on. Jim pulled a face of annoyance in response.

"Imogene and Gracie wouldn’t come near my poster because it was too gross." Archie carried on with his news, not at all deterred by the adult’s conversation. "And the other teacher told me I was too little to do a project like this."

"Well he’s wrong." Greg and Jim said in unison causing Archie to laugh.

"That’s what I told him."

Both Jim and Greg smiled, not only were they proud of the boy for telling the teacher he was wrong but for sticking to the project he so desperately wanted to do. It wasn’t the average project for a year three student but Archie wanted to do his entry on forensic science and neither of them were going to put a stop to that because of age. In fact both of them helped this project excel well beyond what the kid would have had access to otherwise. Archie took the lead, of course, but with more natural resources sitting around the dinning room table than other kids could find on Google all his questions could be answered.

Greg even went so far as scheduling a lunch with Anderson, the man was no longer a forensic scientist (nor the most stable of individuals) but he was an expert in the field at one time and able to give Archie a different view on things. It helped him put the work in, do research on his own and put in the time, not just write down an average night’s conversation. They equipped him with actual tools and things like caution tape for his display. Honestly, Greg didn’t understand how it wasn’t a first place entry but wrote it off as father’s pride, thinking his son was the best.

"Good!" Greg praised (it was hard not to) "That’s my boy."

Leaning down, Greg scooped his son up, easily positioning the Archie on his hip and only letting out a slight groan of exertion. Archie was too old to be held like this but he was small for his age and liked that occasionally he could be. It was celebratory, it was rare but this was a great moment for it and the boy cuddled right up and soaked in all the affection and praise the men were showering him in.

Jim stood at that point, clear they’d be moving on from the shopping centre, grabbing Archie’s backpack as he did. With a quick smile to Greg, something close to shared pride, Jim hit the kid’s back as his smile shifted to something softer. “We should celebrate! Anywhere you want to go, kid”

"McDonald's!" Archie cried. Greg shook his head both of of ridiculousness and to say no.

"We can do better than that, Arch, you're an award winning scientist, be clever." Jim spoke with the ridiculous attitude Greg showed, encouraging the boy.

"The toy store?" there was less enthusiasm more searching for the right answer.

"Leave it to me. I've got just the thing." Jim nodded his head to silently tell the Lestrade which way to head.


End file.
